Hi everyone

I've just put together a small AM 2 valve transmitter kit and battery eliminator I bought on Ebay from the UK for about $60 each plus postage. The battery eliminator came assembled and the transmitter kit was very easy to put together even for a fumbled fingered technically challenged bloke like me.

It works really well around the house and puts out a decent signal. We can never get good AM reception on the Northern Beaches and so it's nice to listen to music as it should sound.

It comes with two RCA inputs and so I just use an Ipod. Not quite sure what happens with the stereo signal input but it works nicely. Much as I Iike 2CH music, the reception is poor and the constant ads for incontinence pads, denture adhesives and retirement villages get a bit old!

Cheers
Mark

Yes, John Singleton and Alan Jones seem to be making a killing with the types of ads you mention. I usually listen to Alan Jones in the morning on 2GB and then shimmy over to 2CH (both are owned by the same company) and listen to that for the rest of the day.

Would you be able to post a link to the webpage containing detail of the transmitter you purchased?

Chances are the transmitter won't transmit in stereo because it'd need the Motorola encoding chip used for stereo AM in Australia. It'd more likely merge the two channels together in the same way they do at radio stations that have reverted to transmitting in mono.

Not that stereo AM is necessary of course. It never really took off here did it? I'm pleased to be able to tune in anything.


Here's the link:

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180693969964.

Cheers

Mark

That is a nice-looking setup. No coils to wind - lovely. I am giving thought to grabbing one of those. Six are still available.

As for stereo AM, it went as well as can be expected for a while, even to the point where Holden was installing stereo AM/FM radios in base-model Commodores.

The fad soon passed though and about six years after stereo AM was rolled out receiver manufacturers gave up on it, probably in response to the Commonwealth Government selling FM licences to existing AM stations.

I think another issue is that bandwidth on the AM band simply wasn't big enough to let the whole audible spectrum come from the radio station to our ears. That said, valve radios definitely produce a crisper sound on the AM band than most transistorised radios could ever hope to.

I had / Have in a box somewhere one of the AM Stereo Eurovox ("europox" if you have owned one!) Radio fitted to my VN Commodore. Since I owned the car in the very late 90s AM stereo must have been a thing of the past.

I Can still remember my local AM station when I was growing up (2WG) had a jingle along the line of "stereo 1152 2WG"

Anyway the radio never picked up a "Stereo" AM transmission as far as I know. That was even when I moved to Melbourne. FM wasn't that great ether.

Just the radio I was talking about. Good old Aussie Eurovox, which was supposed to be an Aboriginal word meaning voice of the kangaroo. I've never verified that though.

The VN model Commodore was the model the stereo AM receivers were fitted to although not all stations converted, particularly those that won licences to change to the FM band.

If you like to roll your own AM transmitter, take a look at my web site

As for AM stereo, here in the USA the idiots at our funny cookie corporation (FCC) back in the early 80's decided to "let the marketplace decide" which of 6 or so incompatable methods would be the winner. Well, none won. Nobody wanted to bet on which system to put in their radio station's transmitter, and consumers didn't know which receiver to buy. Eventually, the FCC decided to go with the Motorola CQAM system, but it was too late. Now we have this in band on channel IBOC digital radio "HD radio" system that sounds like white noise 5 to 10kHz above and below radio station carriers. HD radio is bombing here, few people are buying it.

We had Motorola's CQUAM system here. Apparently it was the best system for big countries and because Australia is a big country with very few people our transmitters have to be big to reach everyone. AM broadcasters transmit at typically between 5kW and 50kW and CQUAM seemed to handle the big power better.

When Digital was experimented with, all but one system tried failed miserably. The winner here was DAB+ all the way from the mother country which is probably why all the receivers here have British brand names.

Fortunately, when the Commonwealth Government has experimented with Bradcasting systems we haven't had to endure the Beta v's VHS and HD-DVD v's Blueray saga.

Regarding the rollout of digital radio in Australia, it probably isn't going too bad all things considered. The Commonwealth has given a lifeline of 10-20 years to the existing analogue systems and for some reason carmakers seem reluctant to put digital radios in their cars.

When I look back, things like Compact Discs and the older Compact Cassettes never really took off here until car audio systems sarted supporting them and I think the same will happen with digital radio.

I have just put 1 of these together Myself, This was a very easy build & My old Valve sets can now Play anything I want & the sound is original too, although you don't need to feed too loud a Volume signal into the transmitter, it will distort

I built an American one from the "Phil's Old Radio's" Website.

(http://www.antiqueradio.org/transmitter.htm)

The bits are not expensive & a small step-down transformer will supply the heater & HT voltages easily

Strangely enough I am still waiting for mine to come from England. I am hoping that the Royal Mail is simply being slow rather than the item being lost.

Griffin, any chance you could let me know how quickly yours arrived? I bought mine from the same seller.

Brad, I jumped in and bought one, too. Ordered it on 14 August and it arrived on 25 August, so 2 weeks turnaround.

I'll get around to assembling it in due course.

I noticed that the seller was on holidays between 19 August and 3 September, so that may have affected your shipment. What "posted" date is showing in your eBay transaction?

Bought and paid on the 13th August. It's showing as posted on the 14th.

Mine was posted on the 14th, too, so it seems yours may be in limbo somewhere.

Mine came registered post and I had to sign for it, so it was "carded" by the PO. Suggest you follow up with your local PO.

Mine took only 10 days, and that was when I purchased it on Aug 14th, I never had to Sign for it or anything, when I collected it from local PO